IMPACT

Researchers reveal the infectious impact of salmon farms on wild salmon

A new study published in the March 30th edition of the prestigious scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B (a publication of the UK's national academy of science) shows that the transfer of parasitic sea lice from salmon farms to wild salmon populations is much larger and more extensive than previously believed. This quantitative analysis of parasite transfer is a scientific...

Study Models Impact Of Anthrax Vaccine

Rapidly distributing antibiotics to peopleexposed to anthrax spores during a bioterrorist attack, could byitself, prevent about 70 percent of anthrax infections from occurring,according to researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School ofPublic Health. To increase the prevention rate to 90 percent, theirstudy found that at least 63 percent of the population would need to beimmunized wi...

Measuring the impact of post-genomics on Mediterranean populations

A recent Genomed-Health 2005 workshop in Tunisia, supported by the European Commission, highlighted the role of the life sciences in improving health in countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Delegates at the event also discussed the importance of Euro-Mediterranean partnerships in order to capitalise on post-genomic research. The life sciences ?in particular following the mapping of t...

Second messenger NAADP shows fast, dose-related impact on satiety cycle

One traditional approach to pharmaceutical design uses so-called "first messengers" ?hormones, other natural facilitators or synthetic products ?to initiate various cellular cascades for the desired physiological effect. To date, despite concerted efforts at all levels of research, this approach has failed to develop a truly successful obesity drug to address this major global health problem....

The first impact factor for PLoS Biology ?13.9

The open-access journal PLoS Biology has been assessed by Thomson ISI to have an impact factor of 13.9*, which places PLoS Biology among the most highly cited journals in the life sciences. This is an outstanding statistic for a journal less than two years old, from a new publisher promoting a new business model that supports open access to the scientific and medical literature. An impact...

Open Access journals get impressive impact factors

Impressive impact factors prove that BioMed Central's Open Access journals are high quality and widely read and cited. Journals published by BioMed Central have again received impact factors that compare well with equivalent subscription titles, it was announced today, with five titles in the top five of their specialty. The high impact factors for these journals affirm that they are respected by...

OHSU research shows vitamin C counteracts some negative impacts of smoking on unborn babies

Research conducted in monkeys at the Oregon National Primate Research Center, Oregon Health & Science University, suggests high doses of vitamin C may have potential to counteract some negative impacts of smoking in unborn babies. The research may benefit thousands of babies born to mothers who continue to smoke throughout pregnancy despite physician warnings. The research is published in the...

York scientists warn of dramatic impact of climate change on Africa

Scientists at the University of York are warning that dramatic changes may soon occur in Africa's vegetation in response to global warming. Scientists in the University's Environment Department studied the likely impact of future climate f...

Old drug, new tricks: Prospects for slashing the impact of malaria

A dramatic reduction in the impact of malaria is in prospect with a clinical drug trial to begin in Papua New Guinea early next year. Success in the trial would open the way to relief in the 10% of humanity infected with this debilitating and often fatal disease - over 500,000,000 people. The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research is collaborating with the Papua New Guinea In...

Breath of the dragon: ERS-2 and Envisat reveal impact of economic growth on China's air quality

China's spectacular economic growth during the last decade has brought many benefits - and some challenges. Global atmospheric mapping of nitrogen dioxide pollution performed by ERS-2's GOME and Envisat's SCIAMACHY reveals the world's largest amount of NO2 hanging above Beijing and northeast China, as reported in Nature this week. As part of ESA's Dragon Programme, European and Chinese res...

Amazon trees much older than assumed, raising questions on global climate impact of region

Trees in the Amazon tropical forests are old. Really old, in fact, which comes as a surprise to a team of American and Brazilian researchers studying tree growth in the world's largest tropical region. Using radiocarbon dating methods, the team, which includes UC Irvine's Susan Trumbore, found that up to half of all trees greater than 10 centimeters in diameter are more than 300 years old....

Health of Acehnese reefs in the wake of the tsunami shows human impacts more harmful

According to research reported this week in Current Biology, tsunami damage to coral reefs closest to the epicenter of the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake was occasionally spectacular, but surprisingly limited, particularly when compared to damage from chronic human misuse in the region. Less than 100 days after the tsunami of December 26, 2004, a team of ecologists from James Cook Univer...

Infused spleen cells found not to impact islet recovery and reversal of type 1 diabetes in mice

Researchers at the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine at Johns Hopkins have invented a cost-effective and highly efficient way of analyzing what many have termed "junk" DNA and identified regions critical for controlling gene function. And they have found that these control regions from different species don't have to look alike to work alike. The study will be published online...

Deep-rooted plants have much greater impact on climate than experts thought

Trees, particularly those with deep roots, contribute to the Earth's climate much more than scientists thought, according to a new study by biologists and climatologists from the University of California, Berkeley. While scientists studying global climate change recognize the importance of vegetation in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and in local cooling through transpiration,...

Impressive new Impact Factors for BioMed Central's open-access journals

Eleven journals published by BioMed Central, the open access publisher, received their first Impact Factor this month. With nine journals in the top 10 of their 2005 Journal Citation Report* category, and ten journals with a 2005 Impact Factor exceeding 3.00, open access journals are confirmed as publishing high-quality, highly cited research. Genome Biology, BioMed Central's flagship titl...

Overfishing large sharks impacts entire marine ecosystem, shrinks shellfish supply

Fewer big sharks in the oceans mean that bay scallops and other shellfish may be harder to find at the market, according to an article in the March 30 issue of the journal Science, tying two unlikely links in the food web to the same fate. A team of Canadian and American ecologists, led by world-renowned fisheries biologist Ransom Myers at Dalhousie University, has found that overfishing...

How to manage forests in hurricane impact zones

Forest Service researchers have developed an adaptive strategy to help natural resource managers in the southeastern United States both prepare for and respond to disturbance from major hurricanes. In an article published in the journal Forest Ecology and Management, John Stanturf, Scott Goodrick, and Ken Outcalt from the Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) unit in Athens, GA, report t...

Gene chips forecast ecological impacts of climate change

Gretchen Hofmann, an associate professor of biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, will present a talk about the use of technologies in molecular biology to assess climate-change related impacts on marine invertebrates at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco on Sunday, Feb. 18. Her research centers on sea urchins...

Scientists to track impact of Asian dust and pollution on clouds, weather, climate change

Mice whose brain cells respond to a flash of light are providing insight into the complexities of the sense of smell and may ultimately yield a better understanding of how the human brain works. Investigators at Duke University Medical Center and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute have engineered a strain of mice whose olfactory brain cells "fire" when exposed to light. This was accomplis...

Parasites' impact goes beyond host to affect ecosystem

The good news, if you’re grazing normally on algae in the rocky intertidal zone of the North Atlantic, is that you may not be infected by a parasite. But the better news is, according to new research from the University of New Hampshire, that you might have more to eat if plenty of your neighbors are infected. The research, published in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sc...

Climate change impacts stream life

Climate change is warming Welsh streams and rivers, affecting the number and variety of some of their smallest animals, a major Cardiff University study has found. Rivers and streams are key ecosystems for many aquatic species and form important links with surrounding habitats, yet little emphasis has been given so far to the ecological effects of climate change on these running-waters....

Restricting hospital-based services during SARS outbreak had modest impact

Restrictions on the non-urgent use of hospital-based services that were imposed when a provincial health emergency was declared during the 2003 SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak in Toronto, Ontario, resulted in only modest reductions in overall admissions. In this study, Dr. Michael J. Schull and colleagues determined that restrictions on the non-urgent use of hospital-based se...